Meet our COVID heroes
They’re patients, physicians, pharmacists, police officers, caregivers, and cancer care advocates stepping up to help vulnerable patients continue to have access to treatment throughout the global pandemic closures.

The Max Foundation (Max) and Friends of Max (FOM) proudly announce the formalization of their long standing collaboration supporting people living with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in India. The two organizations signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the recent Friends of Max 2015 Leadership Summit attended by Max CEO, Pat Garcia-Gonzalez in Hyderabad on April 19th.
Viji Venkatesh, Max’s Head of India shares an historical perspective, “In 2003, leaders of Max’s team in India and community leaders agreed to collaborate on providing free support services to families affected by CML and GIST in the country. This collaboration resulted in the formation of Friends of Max, a Charitable Trust registered with the Charities Commissioner’s Office in Mumbai. Today, we celebrate our MOU signing to enable greater support to people living with CML and GIST across the country.”
Pat Garcia-Gonzalez of Max remarks, “Since its inception, Friends of Max has served as the patient support arm of The Max Foundation. We are a united force. We are grateful for our partnership of so many years and full of hope as we look ahead to how much we can accomplish together.”

The Max Foundation is a leading global health nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating health equity. For 28 years, Max has pioneered practical, scalable, high-quality solutions to bring life-extending treatments and patient-centered health care to more than 100,000 people living with cancer and critical illness in low- and middle-income countries. Max believes in a world where all people can access high-impact medicines, where geography is not destiny, and where everyone can strive for health with dignity and with hope.

On a dry sunny Saturday in Addis Ababa, more than 100 people sat in an auditorium at the Black Lion Hospital, intently listening to a panel of experts. Representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health, doctors, local and international NGOs, and concerned citizens, gathered together for the first time, to discuss the challenges of treating cancer in the country. People in the audience were not ordinary people; they were people who were affected by the dreaded C word, cancer. Most of them, parents whose children were undergoing treatment, some of them cancer survivors themselves.

This summer, India Country Head Viji Venkatesh is crisscrossing the USA to host Chai for Cancer addas and share The Max Foundation vision. Started in India, Chai for Cancer is our global initiative to invite our community to partner with us. There have already been a number of events in Houston, Charlotte, and New Jersey with more to come!